{"id":247137,"date":"2026-11-11T23:25:46","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T05:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/nasa-warns-a-monster-el-nino-could-surpass-the-historic-1997-event"},"modified":"2026-11-11T23:25:46","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T05:25:46","slug":"nasa-warns-a-monster-el-nino-could-surpass-the-historic-1997-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/nasa-warns-a-monster-el-nino-could-surpass-the-historic-1997-event","title":{"rendered":"NASA Warns a Monster El Ni\u00f1o Could Surpass the Historic 1997 Event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>An El Ni\u00f1o that could beat 1997\u2019s record is taking shape in the Pacific, leaving scientists watching for its next move.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>El Ni\u00f1o is part of a natural climate pattern that returns roughly every two to seven years. Its most recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/products\/analysis_monitoring\/enso\/roni\/\">very strong<\/a> events, in 1997\u201398 and 2015\u201316, disrupted weather worldwide. Consequences included <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2016\/09\/160919162849.htm\">fires in Indonesia<\/a> and the Amazon, crop failures caused by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2026\/01\/260112214304.htm\">drought in southern Africa<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/svs.gsfc.nasa.gov\/4416\">heavy rain<\/a> and coastal flooding in Southern California.<\/p>\n<p>Satellite measurements show that the <a href=\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/nasa-satellites-spot-a-powerful-el-nino-building-beneath-the-pacific\/\">current El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> resembles the 1997\u201398 event, with warm water stretching across the equatorial Pacific to South America. But that oceanic resemblance does not guarantee the same weather during winter 2026\u201327, as the outcome also depends on how the atmosphere responds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An El Ni\u00f1o that could beat 1997\u2019s record is taking shape in the Pacific, leaving scientists watching for its next move. El Ni\u00f1o is part of a natural climate pattern that returns roughly every two to seven years. Its most recent very strong events, in 1997\u201398 and 2015\u201316, disrupted weather worldwide. Consequences included fires in [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[493],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climatology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}